Credit Ratings and UK Defined Pension Fund Portfolio Values

The emergence, in recent years, of large financing deficits in the portfolio values of UK DB pension funds, along with changes in the way such funds are valued by actuaries, has led fund managers to increase the weighting of fixed income securities, including corporate bonds, relative to equities in the portfolios they manage. Since bond prices tend to be less volatile than those of equities, greater bond holdings are attractive in the context of an accounting framework which now values funds on the basis of the current market values of the assets they hold and does not permit the smoothing of asset values over time. When selecting the fixed income securities to be held in the portfolios they manage, fund managers will have regard to the credit ratings assigned to corporate bond issuers. Through a consideration of some key credit rating metrics, and a survey of some relevant literature, this paper seeks to shed light on the ways, and the extent to which, the actions of the credit rating agencies may impact upon the values of defined benefit pension fund portfolios. The paper is organized as follows. Section i provides a general introduction to the theory and practice of credit rating and notes the relevance of credit ratings to defined benefit pension funds. Section ii presents a discussion of pension fund portfolios and their asset allocations. Sections iii and iv analyse the significance of credit ratings and the behaviour of rating agencies for defined benefit pension funds. Section v draws some tentative conclusions and offers some suggestions on the direction that future research on this topic might take.credit ratings; pension funds; portfolios

Rigidity and absence of line fields for meromorphic and Ahlfors islands maps

In this note, we give an elementary proof of the absence of invariant line fields on the conical Julia set of an analytic function of one variable. This proof applies not only to rational as well as transcendental meromorphic functions (where it was previously known), but even to the extremely general setting of Ahlfors islands maps as defined by Adam Epstein. In fact, we prove a more general result on the absence of invariant_differentials_, measurable with respect to a conformal measure that is supported on the (unbranched) conical Julia set. This includes the study of cohomological equations for $\log|f'|$, which are relevant to a number of well-known rigidity questions.Comment: 17 page

From personal tragedy to social oppression: the medical model and social theories of disability

Over the last decade the medical model with its individualized, psychologized and medicalized account of disability has been rejected in favour of a sociological account that views disabil.ity as an oppressive social creation. In these later accounts, the focus shifts from individual impairment to the disabling effects of social organization and structures designed around, and for, non-disabled people. This paper compares and contrasts the conceptual and theoretical approaches of both these models. In the light of these models, disability social policy, particularly as it affects the employment of disabled people, is examined

An Evaluation of Geophysical Methods in the Detection of Toddler-Sized Burials During the First Six Months of Burials

Geophysical survey has become a major tool in the search for clandestine graves associated with missing person cases. However, relatively little research has been done to evaluate the efficacy of different instruments. Ground-penetrating Radar (GPR), magnetometry, resistivity, conductivity, and susceptibility survey data were collected over the first six months of interment at approximately 30-day intervals for two research plots: an open grassy area and a wooded area. Each area contained five pig burials representing toddler-size (less than 50 pounds) remains and two areas of disturbance or false burials to serve as control graves. The resultant imagery was evaluated in terms of relative utility in burial detection. In general, geophysical survey method results were not very effective in the detection of toddler-sized burials. Under the conditions that this research was conducted, the GPR would have had the maximum potential to provide the best survey results, but this was not the case. The GPR results were only marginally better than the other methods after processing with additional filters. The other methods utilized in this research would be of no benefit in delineating toddler-sized clandestine burials under the conditions that this research was conducted. This is most likely due to the small target size, soil type, and the soil moisture

F11RS SGR No. 12 (Official Clickers)

A RESOLUTION To urge and request that all academic departments of Louisiana State University use the Turning Technologies RF clicker for in class participation and quizze

A Proposal for the Tax Treatment of Interest in a Territorial System

To prevent negative effective tax rates in a territorial system, a multinational corporation’s deductions for interest expense attributable to foreign profits must be disallowed. To determine what portion of worldwide interest is foreign, it is commonly suggested that interest be allocated in proportion to assets. Because it would ease administrative problems and because it would reduce the incentives to shift profits through aggressive transfer pricing, allocation of interest in proportion to gross profits would be a superior approach. Also, contrary to the usual argument, the United States should not be reluctant to unilaterally adopt interest disallowance rules because it would create incentives for other countries to adopt similar rules and during the interim it would reduce taxes of U.S. multinationals at the expense of foreign governments

Eicosapentaenoic acid and oxypurinol in the treatment of muscle wasting in a mouse model of cancer cachexia

Cancer cachexia is a wasting condition, driven by systemic inflammation and oxidative stress. This study investigated eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) in combination with oxypurinol as a treatment in a mouse model of cancer cachexia. Mice with cancer cachexia were randomized into 4 treatment groups (EPA (0.4 g/kg/day), oxypurinol (1 mmol/L ad-lib), combination, or control), and euthanized after 29 days. Analysis of oxidative damage to DNA, mRNA analysis of pro-oxidant, antioxidant and proteolytic pathway components, along with enzyme activity of pro- and antioxidants were completed on gastrocnemius muscle. The control group displayed earlier onset of tumor compared to EPA and oxypurinol groups (P&lt;0.001). The EPA group maintained body weight for an extended duration (20 days) compared to the oxypurinol (5 days) and combination (8 days) groups (P&lt;0.05). EPA (18.2&plusmn;3.2 pg/ml) and combination (18.4&plusmn;3.7 pg/ml) groups had significantly higher 8-OH-dG levels than the control group (12.9&plusmn;1.4 pg/ml, P&le;0.05) indicating increased oxidative damage to DNA. mRNA levels of GPx1, MURF1 and MAFbx were higher following EPA treatment compared to control (P&le;0.05). Whereas oxypurinol was associated with higher GPx1, MnSOD, CAT, XDH, MURF1, MAFbx and UbB mRNA compared to control (P&le;0.05). Activity of total SOD was higher in the oxypurinol group (32.2&plusmn;1.5 U/ml) compared to control (27.0&plusmn;1.3 U/ml, P&lt;0.01), GPx activity was lower in the EPA group (8.76&plusmn;2.0 U/ml) compared to control (14.0&plusmn;1.9 U/ml, P&lt;0.05), and catalase activity was lower in the combination group (14.4&plusmn;2.8 U/ml) compared to control (20.9&plusmn;2.0 U/ml, P&lt;0.01). There was no change in XO activity. The increased rate of weight decline in mice treated with oxypurinol indicates that XO may play a protective role during the progression of cancer cachexia, and its inhibition is detrimental to outcomes. In combination with EPA, there was little significant improvement from control, indicating oxypurinol is unlikely to be a viable treatment compound in cancer cachexia.<br /

Predicting the distribution and impacts of non-native birds in the Iberian Peninsula

Increasing numbers of species are being transported beyond their natural range boundaries by humans. These non-native species can have severe negative impacts on native biodiversity. In order to guide management of these species it is important to be able predict where non-native species will spread to, and what impact they will have. This thesis aims to improve our understanding in both these areas, using the expansion of non-native birds in the Iberian Peninsula as a study system. The number of non-native passerines in the Iberian Peninsula has increased in the late 20th century, with the common waxbill Estrilda astrild, yellow-crowned bishop Euplectes afer, red avadavat Amandava amandava and black-headed weaver Ploceus melanocephalus all established as breeding species since 1960. Methods to (1) account for dispersal limitation when modelling the distribution of spreading non-native species and (2) evaluate the likely transferability of native trained species distribution models were developed. The consistency of the species-environment relationship during expansion in the non-native range was also examined. The ability of vacant niches to facilitate the spread of non-native species was tested, and a framework for detecting the early impacts of non-native species was developed. Species distribution models of the potential distribution of non-native species are improved by incorporating dispersal. Dispersal is an important constraint on the distribution of non-native species, and interacts with environmental suitability to alter the species-environment relationship between the range-margin and the range core, and over time. Despite accounting for dispersal limitation in their evaluation, the performance of native-trained species distribution models was poor when most environmental conditions that were analogous to the species native range were within the species niche. Non-native birds in the Iberian Peninsula utilised similar resources to native seed-eating birds, but small differences in resource utilisation allowed them to exploit rice fields, where resources were under-exploited by native species. Non-native birds could also interact with native reedbed nesting passerines, and indeed aggression between black-headed weavers and native Acrocephalus warblers has been recorded. However, we did not find evidence for competition between these species at current population densities of black-headed weavers. Further work on non-native species needs to extend the hybrid dispersal-species distribution models developed here, and also to conduct more assessments of the impacts of non-native species in the early stages of their invasion

Ketone Hydrosilylation Studies Using a Carbodiphosphorane Catalyst

The objective of this research is to discover an effective, safe, and low-cost catalyst for ketone hydrosilylation reactions, which involve the addition of a silicon–hydrogen bond across a C=O double bond. Improving catalyst efficiency could benefit the organic synthesis industry, as carbonyl hydrosilylation is used industrially in the synthesis of alcohol products. Use of the carbodiphosphorane catalyst as a replacement for toxic heavy-metal-containing catalysts could reduce waste and emissions harmful to the environment, while also providing an alternative means for accomplishing ketone reduction. Using a cyclic carbodiphosphorane catalyst, we have compared catalytic activity toward acetophenone hydrosilylation for a range of 18 silanes, the most effective of which was diphenylsilane. A range of 24 alkyl and aryl ketones have also been investigated. The carbodiphosphorane catalyst was more active in ketone hydrosilylation reactions compared to other nucleophilic organic catalysts tested